Humble Heelers

Hello High Heelers

So, I have had printer issues next to nothing this week! Really. Tragic printer problems. I found myself, the evening before a major company strategy session with hundreds of pages to print (literally), a venue to set up, details to finalise and ‘bam, boom, bang!’ not one, not two, but all three of the heavy duty printers in my office packed up. This was around 7 in the evening and in my world it meant no alternative. Argh!

But let me not digress, this story is not really about printers at all – no! That would be boring. Printers don’t wear heels, they don’t carry gorgeous Louis V bags, they don’t wear red lipstick and they’re not elegantly intimidating – like my boss, Natalie Maroun. And quite frankly, neither are printer technicians (no offense to them). I’m quite convinced that most printer technicians are the most wonderful people on earth – they rescue us from broken printers after all (and who hasn’t been through that painful tragedy?) But the one I interacted with today was no Superman. In fact, he wasn’t even a Clark Kent!

We’re now getting closer to the actual story here. So, in walks said printer technician and declares loudly to our Creative Director that our security staff are really rude. As a service-obsessed individual, my ears pricked up and my brow curved into ‘concerned look number 3’ (which is wrinkle causer). The next sentence went like this: “The guy wouldn’t even let me park in the loading zone, I argued with him but he forced me to go park in the parking lot.”

Now, if said printer person was actually offloading heavy, specialised printer equipment which he was bringing to save us from printer-tragedy, I would have accepted this statement. But he came in pretty much empty handed. He had a pen in his hand. Now, I know the pen is mightier than the sword, but really! How a pen solves a printer disaster is still a mystery. So I replied as loudly as possible “Good. That’s where you are supposed to park.” (I refrained from throwing in any further words since the office is an inappropriate space for name calling).

Some people think they are more special than others. You know the ones – they park in disabled bays (when they are perfectly ‘able’), they drive in the emergency lane to avoid traffic, they jump the queue – the list goes on. But the reality is – no one is ‘above’ anyone else. It doesn’t really matter who you are, what position you hold, where your family are from or what your bank balance is. You are no more justified than the next person.

I recently saw one of our most prolific and effective cabinet ministers (a man from a very wealthy family) standing in a long queue at the grocery store in my work complex. Everybody in the queue knew who is he was and a few even encouraged him to pass them. But he declined and happily stood, like the rest of us, patiently waiting his turn to pay for his bread and milk. My respect levels soared beyond limits!

High Heelers, though we are gorgeous, successful, ambitious and fabulous, what we should always be (above everything else) is humble. In our humility is our humanity. Let’s keep our heels firmly rooted on the ground as we climb. Have a wonderful week.

Cheers,
Jo